


secrets & sisters

by RuanChunXian



Series: Three Sentence Fic-a-thon [24]
Category: Downton Abbey
Genre: 3 Sentence Ficathon, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-28
Updated: 2015-02-28
Packaged: 2018-03-15 15:19:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3452045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RuanChunXian/pseuds/RuanChunXian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mary has to know about Marigold at some point, right?</p>
            </blockquote>





	secrets & sisters

**Author's Note:**

> Three-Sentence Fic-a-thon 2015: http://rthstewart.dreamwidth.org/119267.html  
> (Clearly not three sentences long though.)  
> Prompt: Downton Abbey, Mary & Edith, what it means to be sisters

"So, Aunt Rosamund, Granny, Mama, Papa, even _Tom_ , which is to say, _everybody_ already know before I do?" Mary demands.  
  
Edith nods mutely and doesn’t mention that she thinks a fair number of the servants have put things together as well - she is sure at least Mrs Hughes has - though none of them have ever said anything to that effect to her face.  
  
" _Why_ , Edith, why did you not tell me?" Mary asks.  
  
“Isn’t the answer to that obvious?” Edith says, tears springing into her eyes as she waits for the inevitable mockery that is sure to come; at the same time she can’t help but tilt her chin up defiantly, for Mary can try to shame Edith for her actions, but Edith refuses to be ashamed of Marigold.  
  
Mary simply stares, and it takes Edith several moments to realise it is hurt in her eyes; her older sister has never bothered to care so much about Edith to ever be simply hurt at anything she does before. Mary had been _indignant_ and _angry_ when Edith ratted her out to the Turkish Embassy, but she didn’t display this sense of dismayed betrayal.  
  
Her mind on the Pamuk incident means that Edith is even more startled than she already is when Mary finally says, “Edith, I know we have never got on, but I must be the worst of hypocrites to criticise you for the consequences of a moment of indiscretion; I even wonder whether the consequences is half named after me.”  
  
There is something in the dry way that Mary says it that makes Edith give a tearful chuckle. For some reason, she doesn’t feel like pointing out that _Mary_ was easily the last person she thought of when she decided her daughter’s name; but the rare-smile that Mary gives in return tells Edith that Mary doesn’t really think so either.


End file.
